He starts by apologizing for his voice, not at the best of times after the high-intensity rally on the Atreju stage and the speech with equally strong tones that took place yesterday in the hemicycle after the communications with a view to the European Council, but at the end also in the Senate, Giorgia Meloni overloads her vocal chords. In her response, the prime minister clashed with the opposition, rejecting point by point the criticisms made by the Palazzo Madama chamber benches, starting with the privileged relationship with Elon Musk targeted in particular by former prime minister Mario Monti. “He said that we gave him a moral protectorate in our country… Allow me a joke, I don’t know what film you saw – says Meloni, addressing the senator -. Many years ago we saw Italian leaders who thought that, when they had a good relationship or even a friendship with a foreign leader, they had to slavishly comply with what others said.
“I may be friends with Elon Musk, have good relationships with a lot of people, but I don’t take orders from anyone! I am a free person”, the Prime Minister makes clear, noting that the Musk issue “arose in the aftermath of his support for Trump’s candidacy. While Musk supported the Democratic Party, no one said a word, and if he had supported him in this election , no one would have said a word.” “I do not allow interference from anyone, I always and only look at the national interest” Meloni then reiterates, still attacking the Democrats: “To hear, in this debate, that you have also become sovereignists and that is why you defend national sovereignty from interference foreign trips makes me happy and I consider it a great achievement for Musk, even more than reaching the Moon.”
As regards relations, then, the Prime Minister also returns to meet Argentine President Javier Milei at the request of Matteo Renzi on Italy’s position on the EU-Mercosur agreement. “It’s not being with Milei or being with Coldiretti. I want to reassure you, when in doubt: I’m always with Italy”, explains Meloni, attacking the IV leader: “You were friends with Barack Obama and wore your coat like Barack Obama, I’m friends with Milei, but I don’t have sideburns.” Renzi then continues to be the target of another response, this time linked to the European Commission and the appointment of Raffale Fitto. “I fear that I have missed a fundamental element of the difference between the League’s position and that of the opposition: the League votes for Fitto and does not vote for the Commission” while “the PSE delegations give the mandate to write a letter to Ursula von der Leyen where It is said that Fitto should not have the vice-presidency. There is a difference and a very important difference, because on the one hand we have a party that defends the Italian Commissioner while contesting the Commission and, on the other, we have a party that defends it. and contests the role of the Italian commissioner”. Regarding the complicated process that led to Fitto’s appointment, however, Meloni returns to attack the party of secretary Elly Schlein after the intervention of the democratic senator Alessandro Alfieri: “The Italians should know that you allowed the Italian commissioner, vice-president of the Commission, appointed by Italy, was taken hostage to guarantee the election of a Spanish commissioner. This is a very different attitude from what the League had.
The prime minister’s voice rises again even when the opposition makes noise about the Caivano dossier. “I think every now and then we need to recognize what we’ve done. It’s useless for you to say ‘ooh’, we were the ones who expelled 36 members of the Camorra from occupied poor houses – he attacks -. therefore ‘ooh ooh’, when not ‘he did it before us, until no! Because the Camorra had been there for a few years and no one had noticed.’ The final sparks are with the M5 senators, whom the prime minister reproaches for the expenses with the super bonus and then, “with a lot of ease and institutional grace”, reminds him that it is “less than accusing those who raised the funds of being servants of what the banks do lobby with 3.6 billion euros in the budget law to cover the reduction in the tax burden”. These are the latest exchanges in a climate that Meloni admits has gradually deteriorated “a little” and therefore, he concludes, “I would like also to take this opportunity to wish you and your families a Merry Christmas and a better 2025 than 2024 for all of us and for our nation”.
Source: IL Tempo
Emma Fitzgerald is an accomplished political journalist and author at The Nation View. With a background in political science and international relations, she has a deep understanding of the political landscape and the forces that shape it.
